Bernie Sanders Is Performing Stronger Than The Media Lets On

Bernie Sanders Isn’t As Far Behind As You Think He Is

206. That’s the difference between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in delegates. Clinton’s lead is anything but “insurmountable,” and with most Southern States behind us, it’s a lead that any quasi-competent analyst will tell you is expected to shrink in the next few weeks… if it isn’t overrun entirely, of course.

If you ask anyone in the media, however, they’ll present you with a completely different number: 655, a much bigger chunk of the 2,382 delegates needed to win. That’s a far greater gap between Sanders and Clinton, and when you hear that number, your faith in Sanders’ ability to win fades away faster than your faith in humanity while seeing what’s happening at Trump rallies.

There’s just one problem with that second number: It’s total bulls–t.

Bernie Sanders vs. The Super-Delegates

That bigger gap is created by the so-called super-delegates; Democratic party insiders who are not beholden to the popular vote and can back candidates who might better tow the party line than some upstart like, say, Bernie Sanders or, in 2008, Barack Obama.

So far, 465 super-delegates have pledged their allegiance to Hillary Clinton, compared to only 25 who’ve done so with Bernie Sanders. And if the real primary drags on in its “dead-heat” status for a good while longer, those super-delegates could theoretically tip the scales in Clinton’s favor.

Super-delegates are sort of like tie-breakers; if Bernie Sanders wins the primary fair and square, they’ll (perhaps begrudgingly) flip to support him. That’s what happened when Barack Obama won the popular vote in 2008, despite Clinton’s huge super-delegate lead.

But what happens if we’re closing in on the convention, and a winner still hasn’t been decided through the popular vote? That’s when the super-delegates begin to matter, and Democracy begins to fade into obscurity. Rather than allowing the people to choose their candidate, the Democratic Party will allow those super-delegates to turn the democratic process on its head and pick whichever candidate they feel like picking. And given her Washington- and Party- insider status, that would rather obviously be Hillary Clinton.

The Media Has Picked Their Favorite Horses

Some of you might be wondering why the media is painting a totally different picture from reality. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are in a virtual dead-heat, with Clinton’s lead being minuscule at best. The primary has only barely just begun, too. So why are so many media outlets reporting otherwise?

There are many theories circulating the web, but I like to think mine makes the most sense: those media outlets have spent the past several years telling us Clinton was a shoe-in for 2016, and they don’t want to be proven wrong. Clinton is also a controversy-magnet; a Hillary Clinton presidency would surely generate some great breaking news headlines over the next four to eight years, as she leapfrogs from one scandal (invented by the right-wing or otherwise) to the next, as she always has.

CNN has been the worst of the lot. Their coverage of the 2016 democratic primary has been anything but objective: they clearly have a bias for Clinton, to the point where some have taken up calling them the Clinton News Network. Time Warner, the corporation that owns CNN, has gone so far as to make sizable contributions to Clinton’s campaign, so they aren’t even trying to hide their affections, either.

Bernie Sanders Can Still Win, Despite What The Media Claims

Bernie Sanders’ 2016 primary run has been a true spectacle of contemporary politics. In that time, he’s risen from virtual obscurity, a name only political wonks had really known, to become the symbol of a movement and the political voice of a generation. That’s no small feat, especially given that he announced his candidacy less than a year ago. And right now, said candidacy is posing a very serious threat to that of Hillary Clinton, one you’d quite frankly be foolish to write off.

If Bernie Sanders does win this primary, he’ll have overcome more obstacles than any other primary victor in living memory. That he’s held his own and continues to challenge Clinton at every turn, despite having the full might of the Democratic Party and the mainstream media throwing down every roadblock they can muster, has already assured his 2016 campaign a place in election history, for sure. And if he loses, his own campaign will be the last place anyone will look for a source of blame.

Let’s be clear about one thing, though: this primary is far from over, and anyone who tells you Bernie Sanders “can’t win” quite frankly doesn’t know what the hell they’re talking about. It’s too early to tell whether Clinton or Sanders will win… we probably won’t know that until late April, actually. So anyone who tries to tell you otherwise before then? Yeah… go right ahead and ignore them.

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